Method and apparatus for tracking of food intake and other behaviors and providing relevant feedback

Abstract

Techniques disclosed herein relate generally to monitoring and tracking food intake events or other behaviors. In some examples, the techniques involve detecting, based on at least one of user input or sensor input from a first set of one or more sensors, a start of a food intake event; activating, in response to detecting the start of the food intake event, a second set of one or more sensors for tracking the food intake event; and determining, based on at least sensor data from the second set of one or more sensors, one or more event-specific parameters for the food intake event.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A processor-implemented method comprising:
 detecting, based on at least one of user input or sensor input from a first set of one or more sensors, a start of a food intake event;   activating, in response to detecting the start of the food intake event, a second set of one or more sensors for tracking the food intake event; and   determining, based on at least sensor data from the second set of one or more sensors, one or more event-specific parameters for the food intake event.   
     
     
         2 . The processor-implemented method of  claim 1 , further comprising deactivating at least one sensor of the second set of one or more sensors in response to detecting an end of the food intake event. 
     
     
         3 . The processor-implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein the sensor input includes motion data, temperature, heart rate, pulse, galvanic skin response, blood or body chemistry, audio or video recording, or a combination thereof. 
     
     
         4 . The processor-implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein the one or more event-specific parameters include a timestamp relative to the start of the food intake event, a timestamp relative to an end of the food intake event, a duration of the food intake event, a bite count, a sip count, a pace of eating related to the food intake event, a pace of drinking related to the food intake event, a measure of an amount consumed during the food intake event, or a combination thereof. 
     
     
         5 . The processor-implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein:
 the second set of one or more sensors comprises a camera; and   activating the second set of one or more sensors includes activating an image capture function of the camera to capture image content related to the food intake event.   
     
     
         6 . The processor-implemented method of  claim 5 , further comprising analyzing the captured image content to identify at least one of food items, food content, nutritional information, portion size, eating behaviors, eating patterns, food categories, pace of eating, pace of drinking, meal type, or an amount of food consumed. 
     
     
         7 . The processor-implemented method of  claim 5 , further comprising enabling, in response to detecting the start of the food intake event, a projecting light source to project visible light to an area within a field of view of the camera. 
     
     
         8 . The processor-implemented method of  claim 7 , further comprising controlling operation of the projecting light source to communicate image capturing information to a user. 
     
     
         9 . The processor-implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein the first set of one or more sensors and the second set of one or more sensors are on one or more electronic devices. 
     
     
         10 . The processor-implemented method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 storing at least the sensor data from the second set of one or more sensors,   wherein determining the one or more event-specific parameters for the food intake event includes analyzing at least the stored sensor data from the second set of one or more sensors in non-real time.   
     
     
         11 . The processor-implemented method of  claim 1 , further comprising determining, based on at least one of the user input or the sensor input from the first set of one or more sensors, a time for activating the second set of one or more sensors during the food intake event. 
     
     
         12 . The processor-implemented method of  claim 1 , further comprising providing feedback to a user, the feedback including a haptic feedback signal, a sound alarm, a display message, a notification, or a combination thereof. 
     
     
         13 . The processor-implemented method of  claim 1 , further comprising, in response to detecting the start of the food intake event, changing at least one sensor of the first set of one or more sensors from a low power mode to a high performance mode that consumes more power than the low power mode. 
     
     
         14 . The processor-implemented method of  claim 13 , wherein the high performance mode is associated with a reduced latency, an increased sampling rate, an increased data processing speed, additional data processing, or a combination thereof. 
     
     
         15 . A system comprising:
 one or more processors; and   one or more processor-readable media storing instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause performance of:
 detecting, based on at least one of user input or sensor input from a first set of one or more sensors, a start of a food intake event; 
 activating, in response to detecting the start of the food intake event, a second set of one or more sensors for tracking the food intake event; and 
 determining, based on at least sensor data from the second set of one or more sensors, one or more event-specific parameters for the food intake event. 
   
     
     
         16 . The system of  claim 15 , wherein the instructions further cause performance of deactivating at least one sensor of the second set of one or more sensors in response to detecting an end of the food intake event. 
     
     
         17 . The system of  claim 15 , wherein:
 the second set of one or more sensors comprises a camera; and   activating the second set of one or more sensors includes activating an image capture function of the camera to capture image content related to the food intake event.   
     
     
         18 . The system of  claim 17 , wherein the instructions further cause performance of enabling, in response to detecting the start of the food intake event, a projecting light source to project visible light to an area within a field of view of the camera. 
     
     
         19 . The system of  claim 15 , wherein the first set of one or more sensors and the second set of one or more sensors are on one or more electronic devices. 
     
     
         20 . A processor-implemented method comprising:
 detecting, based on at least one of user input or sensor input from one or more sensors, a start of a food intake event;   changing, in response to detecting the start of the food intake event, at least one sensor of the one or more sensors from a low power mode to a high performance mode that consumes more power than the low power mode; and   determining, based on at least sensor data from the at least one sensor in the high performance mode, one or more event-specific parameters for the food intake event.